Considering Going to Bobwhites

I've been raising chickens for about a 9 months now. We've enjoyed them but since we free range them a good portion of the time we've been dealing with droppings in the carport.

I'm seriously considering moving to Bobwhite Quail for meat production. Since I have about 2 acres I wanted to attempt to grow as much of their diet as possible. Is there anyone here that has had success with growing the majority of their food staple?? I've been reading that they demand a higher protein diet. I want to try to supply as much of their natural diet as possible.

Also, for food production for a family of four how many should I start out with? How many should I allow to breed at a time?

I would go with Coturnix quail for meat. Bobwhites take many months to mature for egg laying and butchering. Coturnix quail are ready to lay and eat in a couple months. You can have them laying and be eating them really quick. Bobs won't lay til well after 6 months of age and are not fully grown for what seems like ever!

When I raise bobs I don't even evaluate their weight until 20 weeks and usually don't butcher until 24-26 weeks. I butcher a new group of coturnix every 10-12 weeks. Only difference to speak of is coturnix are dark meat bobs are white meat. However if I were to cook them both side by side and blindfold the person eating they wouldn't be able to tell me which was which.

You can, But be careful doing so.... I have a pair of bobs and a pair of coturnix together with about 6 1/2 sq ft per bird.... but coturnix do better in a colony with other coturnix....and they dont need half the things a bob does